Harden the fuck up Australia

Has anyone else been watching the media lately? They seem to have discovered that there are trolls on the internet and it seems if you give anyone shit now, you are a troll and the government should take you away.

I have been labelled a troll and a bully for a single opinion piece I wrote seven years ago. I wasn’t trolling, I was posting an opinion regarding a very, very public news story. I’ve spent the last three years (and still on-going) fighting to keep myself out of jail and free because of it. All because the person didn’t like criticism and has claimed that it constitutes ”cyber-bullying”. (Mind you, in the three years I have never been found guilty of anything.)

But now we have more and more celebrities coming out saying that the government should get involved and deal with these “trolls” and sure why, not? Let’s make it a criminal offence to bust chops on the interent. Let’s put people in jail who disagree with the group-think or want to express themselves in swearing.

It’s not like the internet has become the greatest tool of freedom on the planet. No, someone’s feelings got hurt and they don’t know how to deal with it (using block, report or ignore functions). SO GO CRY TO PRIME MUMMISTER.

Now, I am not defending the trolls. They suck and the majority of them are just vile, immature dickheads, but they have always been here. They are part of the backbone of the internet culture and to have the government get involved, enforcing behaviour and how you act on the Internet is just plain wrong. It won’t take long for people out there to abuse this for personal gain. Again, I speak from experience.

Plus it would stifle freedom of speech because a large part of that is disagreement and being free to disagree in whatever  way you want. (As long as no one dies.. but we already had laws regarding that)

The simple fact is, that there are just way too many idiots going online thinking this is a nice place full of cat pictures and pornography and that trolls should just go away. Well, they are not going away. They have been here since the first “Hello World” (which was followed up by a comment “That’s what your mum said”) these fucking idiots just need to learn how to deal with the trolls. It’s not that fucking hard.

We don’t need any government interference. Laws would be abused by the thin skinned and mentally feeble.  It would cunt-up our already overburdened law system with pointless court cases that take years and years to get sorted. And in the end, the only people who would suffer would be EVERYONE as the freedom to speak your mind would diminish.

And that’s just fucking wrong.